Last Words
by Rhov
Summary: Trapped by enemies they can't defeat, Natsu decides that the only way to beat them is with a suicidal attack. Just before leaping out, he utters his last words...a confession! "I like you, Gray." Gratsu Week, Day 3: Confession.


_A/N: This was written for Gratsu Week going on from July 30th to August 6th. Come drop by and see all the cool fanart.  
_**gratsu-week. deviantart com**_  
_**gratsu-week. tumblr com**

_Day 3 - Theme: Confession_

* * *

**Last Words**

a _Fairy Tail_ fanfic

by Rhov

Gray and Natsu had been fighting an enemy who was far more powerful than they had anticipated. Neither liked that they had to join forces just to fight on the same level at the dark mage, and they especially hated that, despite teamwork, they were pinned down in dire trouble. Natsu even sent Happy to fly off and bring Erza, as much as he despised the idea of asking for help to win a fight. It was safest to just stay in their hiding place and wait for Erza to arrive. However, they could heard Lucy getting hurt somewhere. Her cries of agony tore at both of them.

"We've gotta save her," Natsu insisted.

"I know! I'm trying to think of a way out of this." Gray growled. Strategy was not his forte. Lucy and Erza were better at making battle plans and weighing the strength of an enemy against the weaknesses of others.

Natsu growled deep in his throat. "How messed up! Why can't we defeat one lousy mage?"

"We could, but those bursts he creates gave me such a headache...sheesh!" Gray held his head. "It's still pounding, like it messed up my brain somehow."

"Wimp!"

"Hey! You weren't any better. You just stood there like a deer in the headlights. Who do you think made that ice shield and saved your butt?"

"I couldn't help it. That light, whatever it was, made me forget where I was and what I was doing."

"Yeah, exactly. That's a dangerous magic that makes you forget things. Dammit!"

Natsu growled softly as they heard Lucy scream again. "I can't just sit here!"

"Do you have a plan?"

"I think so, but it's pretty stupid and suicidal."

"That's typical for you. Well, suicidal is better than nothing." Then he teased bitterly, "Got any last words?"

"Yeah." Natsu suddenly got right into the ice mage's face and stared straight into his eyes. "I like you."

Gray blinked in surprise. "You...huh? What?"

"I said, I like you, Gray."

Suddenly, Natsu leaned forward, and his lips crashed roughly against Gray's mouth, stunning him into silence. Gray could do nothing but gawk, his eyes huge, his brain frozen in shock, as Natsu kissed him hard with fervent passion. Then, just as sudden, Natsu pulled back. He smiled at the ice mage's reaction. Priceless! He wanted to etch that dumbfounded face into his memory.

"I just wanted to tell you, before I forget everything."

Without warning, Natsu bounced to his feet and rushed out.

"Wait...wait a minute!" shouted Gray. There was no way he would let the Dragon Slayer say something like that without explaining himself. Plus he realized that if Natsu confessed something that serious, his crack-brained plan must truly be suicidal. "Hey, idiot! Stop!"

Before Gray could scamper after him, there was an explosion. The same brain-numbing flash blinded Gray, and the heated shock wave threw him through the air, screaming Natsu's name.

* * *

Later in the hospital, Gray sat by Natsu's bed. It had been a whole month, and still the Dragon Slayer was not awake.

"Idiot. Another day you're just gonna sleep away."

Gray reached out and took the limp hand. He had held Natsu's hot fingers many times over that month, hoping he would wake up someday. It used to be that everyone on the team spent their time in here, waiting, worrying, hoping...

Now, only Happy and Gray still showed up. Erza had duties as an S-class mage. Lucy had to take missions for her rent. Happy had to fish for his own food now, although Wendy was helping him with cooking, and both Charle and Pantherlily assisted him wherever they could. Gray did not have the heart to go on missions. He was late on his rent, but he did not care about that, either. If he could, he would rather live right here, by Natsu's bedside.

"What you did was really stupid," he told the comatose Dragon Slayer for the umpteenth time. "Do you think Lucy likes to know you sacrificed yourself like that for her? Do you have any clue how Erza feels for not hurrying back to us? Happy is always crying now, and I hate to see that. Do you even know how I feel?" he said louder.

He almost shouted, but he realized he was in a hospital. Gray had already been kicked out five times when he started raging against the unconscious Natsu. He squeezed that warm hand tighter.

"Why, Natsu?" he asked angrily. "Why would you do something as reckless as confessing to me just before almost throwing your life away? Didn't you stop to think how I'd feel? Didn't you realize that if you died that day, knowing we could have been more than rivals would devastate me even more? What idiot confesses their love just before doing something that could get them killed?"

Gray wiped the tears aside. He clenched his teeth to hold back the sadness and rage.

"How...how am I supposed to go on living a normal life, now that I know you're in love with me?"

As he cried, Gray did not see the flinch in Natsu's face. However, he eventually felt a twitch in the fingers he held. He stopped sobbing, and although there were tears in his eyes, Gray watched with breathless hope as, ever so slowly, Natsu woke up. There was a pained moan, a yawn, and finally those squinty eyes opened.

"Natsu!" Gray leaped up and hugged him. "Thank goodness, Natsu. Sheesh, you've had us worried."

"Huh?" Natsu still looked groggy and disoriented.

"Wait, don't move." Gray leaped up and ran to the door. Out in the hallway, he shouted for any nurse to hear, "He's awake! Get the doctor. He's awake!" Then Gray rushed back in and smiled in overflowing excitement. Natsu had pushed himself up into a sitting position and was rubbing out a stiff neck. "Everyone's going to be so excited. They'll probably throw a party for you, ya know! Happy will definitely be relieved to know you're back."

"Happy?" Natsu mumbled, looking confused.

Gray took up Natsu's hand. "Also, I thought about what you said, and...and I feel the same way." Perhaps that was too much to say to a person just waking up from a coma, but he had wanted to tell Natsu that directly for a whole month. He thought the Dragon Slayer would gasp and smile, yet Natsu still looked confused. "What's wrong? Why won't you say anything? You do remember the last words you said to me before running out there and attacking, right?"

"Last words? To you? Uh...no, I guess not." Natsu looked at him with worry, almost panic in his face. "I'm sorry but...who are you?"

To Gray, those three words were a magic incantation to turn his blood to ice. The world stopped. He heard nothing except those three words echoing in his mind.

_Who are you?_

"Do I know you?" Natsu asked. "I...I don't think we've met. Actually, I'm not sure where I am. I...oh God...I don't know my name." Natsu grabbed his head with a look of horror. "What the hell? What's going on? What's my name? What the hell is my name? What happened to me?"

Just as he looked ready to panic, a doctor and many nurses rushed in. Gray was gently pulled aside so they could examine the patient, and he let himself be guided away, too numbed to resist the hands that tugged him backward. Natsu was breathing frantically, unable to answer anything the doctor asked. His eyes were massive as he pulled on his hair, looking around in terror at all the strangers surrounding him.

"Amnesia."

Gray heard that word spoken by the doctor like the pounding of a gavel that declares a judge's ruling as being final.

Natsu might have woken up, but the man who confessed his feelings that day was gone. The _Natsu_ Gray had slowly come to love was lost from the empty shell of a mind that existed in the person sitting before him. Slowly, with his world tilting and spinning out of control, Gray turned and stumbled out of the hospital. All the way home, he wept as he realized he really had lost Natsu that day.

* * *

A year passed. Natsu never did regain his memories, including things he learned as a Dragon Slayer. All those years of training to get stronger were completely wiped out. Although he could still light a flame with his body, he had almost no control over it, and it was not powerful enough to do any missions. Romeo was teaching him a little, but Natsu lacked any passion to return as the Fire Dragon Slayer known throughout Fiore as Salamander Natsu.

Natsu felt too uncomfortable visiting the Fairy Tail guild hall, where everyone knew him but he knew nobody. Gray remained by his side constantly after Natsu was released from the hospital to try and recreate a new life for himself. Not long afterward, Gray offered to let Natsu and Happy live with him, in the heart of the city, rather than the dilapidated shack in the distant outskirts. Other than fighting over the air conditioner and heater all the time, Natsu was not his argumentative self anymore. Sometimes Gray missed that eagerness to challenge everyone for a fight. However, this new Natsu wasn't so bad, either!

Gray heard the door open. "I'm home," came Natsu's shout.

"Welcome home. How was the glass-blowing job?"

"Really awesome! I can put this magical fire of mine to some use making really pretty things. Hey, see?" Natsu proudly held up a dragon made of sculpted glass. "It's cool, right?"

Gray could hardly help but see the irony that the man who gave up learning how to slay dragons now made dragons out of his fire. "Very pretty, Natsu."

He grinned widely with pride. "I think I like working at this place. The boss is friendly, and I get commission if I sell any of my artwork. It's way better than all that fighting you do."

Gray flipped a page in the book he was reading. "You used to fight along side me all the time," he mumbled petulantly.

Natsu just laughed. "Yeah, that's what everyone says. I can't imagine it, though. Oh, that redhead came in to talk with me. Um...Elsa?"

"Erza."

"Yeah, that lady. She bought some of the vases I made yesterday, so I've got extra money. Do you wanna go out with me?"

Gray jolted and felt his cheeks blush a little. Even after all this time, he never forgot that somewhere in Natsu's heart, the Dragon Slayer loved him once.

"I was thinking ramen," Natsu explained, not aware of what he had said. "I know that's not fancy or anything, but it was only three vases, and I only get forty percent commission. Still, my treat! That is...if you wanna." He ended bashfully, looking nervous.

Gray laughed off his old feelings. This new Natsu was obviously slowing falling in love, too. It was really cute to observe, sort of like watching a movie when you already read the book and know how it will end. It kept Gray hopeful.

"Ramen sounds good," he answered. "Maybe we can do something fun afterward. What do you feel like doing?"

Natsu hummed and thought about it. "Well, it's weird, but...I wanna walk to a river. I'm not sure where it is, but I see it in my dreams, and in those dreams you're there too, but we're young. Maybe that's one of my memories returning."

That feeling of hope rushed back into Gray's heart. "I know which river you're talking about. We used to challenge one another there as kids."

"Challenge? We fought?"

"All the time." Gray smiled with fondness at those past memories.

"Haha! I can't imagine fighting you, Gray. You're really strong, and I like you too much." Natsu suddenly covered his mouth, and his cheeks went pink. "That is...um..." He laughed nervously. "That came out really weird. Sorry if it sounded strange."

"It's fine." Gray rose and walked up to the Dragon Slayer. Gazing down at that flushed face, he confessed, "I like you, too."

Natsu blinked in surprise. "You...huh? What?"

"I said, I like you, Natsu." Before they got trapped in some weird shounen-ai moment, Gray strode aside. "Let's eat, then we'll go to that river you dreamed about. Maybe some memories will return."

"Maybe," Natsu muttered, no longer looking excited. "Hey, we used to be rivals, right? If I got my memories back, maybe I might hate you. I don't want that to happen. I like living here with you. I like being your best friend. I don't want to fight with you. Sometimes, I think it makes me not want to remember, because if I do, we'd just go back to being rivals at one another's throats."

"Idiot," Gray laughed. "We were more than just rivals. We were nakama."

"But...I hated you." Natsu looked saddened by the thought.

Looking away, Gray decided that finally, after all this time, he should tell Natsu the truth. "No, you didn't. That day you were hurt...you...you confessed to me."

Natsu gasped a little. "Like, a love confession?"

Gray nodded, unable to face him.

"I confessed, and then...then I lost my memory?"

Another silent nod. Gray felt those hot fingers take hold of his bare arm.

"Why did you hide that from me?"

"Would you have believed me?"

"Maybe not at first, I guess. I didn't know you back then, or even knew myself. But now... Oh Gray!" he sighed. "You really are an idiot. You've lived a whole year hiding this, and all for my sake. I can't believe I would tell you something like that if I knew I was about to make a dangerous attack. That past-Me was a real jerk." Natsu rested his head on Gray's shoulder. "I'm so sorry. You probably hate me for putting you through that."

"How can I hate the man who loves me?"

"I almost hate myself at just the thought of putting you through that." Natsu wrapped his arms around the cold body. "I don't ever want to make your heart ache, Gray."

Gray finally looked down at him. Rather impulsively, he grabbed Natsu's chin and lifted it. It was silly to think that this was like a fairy tale where a kiss solves everything, but part of him really hoped. The last thing Natsu had done was kiss him, so maybe...just maybe...

"Your last words were 'I like you, Gray.' Then you did this."

Gray kissed Natsu with the same desperate passion of that day. He savored those burning hot lips that he had yearned to feel again for so many nights, and his skin prickled at the feel of the heated breath tickling his upper lip. He felt Natsu stiffen in shock, then slowly loosen up as he melted into the kiss.

_Please remember! Remember us. Remember the past. Remember who you really are, you lousy flame-brain!_

When he pulled back, Gray saw Natsu looking startled and embarrassed. However, that wide-eyed innocence was still in his face. It failed. Not like he thought it would really work, anyway.

"I'll tell you more about that day, if you want. Later. We'll eat first."

Gray let go of Natsu's chin and walked around to find his clothes. Brief glances showed that Natsu did not move from his spot, standing there, softly touching his lips, lost in thought. Finally, Gray's shirt and pants were on, and he returned to the main room.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"G-Gray..."

Natsu looked up, but there was new confusion on his face.

"I...I remember now..."

**The End**

* * *

_A/N: I once had an epileptic seizure so bad, I lost my memory. It's not like how they show in movies. "Oh dear, I don't know my name." It was TERRIFYING. I didn't know where I was or who the man in front of me was (I was in my bedroom, and the stranger was my husband). When I realized I didn't know who **I** was...I freaked. Thank goodness, my experience lasted only a short time, but I'll never forget the terror of not knowing anything about myself. _


End file.
